


The Isle Of Seven Cities

by ForeverDoesntExist



Category: Figure Skating RPF, Sports RPF
Genre: 15DaysChallenge, Alternate Universe, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Crack, Legends, Light-Hearted, M/M, Other, Short Story, Some Humor, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-19
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-01-16 04:56:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18514339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForeverDoesntExist/pseuds/ForeverDoesntExist
Summary: A short story based on the legend of The Princess and the Shepherd, and the mythical Isle of Seven Cities also known as Antília, both popular myths from the Azores, Portugal.OrYuzuru and Javier are on vacation and decide to visit the Lagoon of the Seven Cities, will everyone survive or will Yuzuru drown their tour guide before the day ends? Is anything what it seems?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Puniyo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Puniyo/gifts).



> For one of the best authors, I had the pleasure to meet, with your creations you inspired a lot of us so I'll try to make you smile with my barely there writing skills. I hope you can enjoy this tale and please ignore any mistakes you might find :P
> 
> I love you and wish for you to be happy, always.
> 
> Hope you guys like it, and remember that the legend is being told in italics to make it less confusing, happy reading :P

 

                                                                             

**_It is such a secret place, the land of tears._ **

**_\- Antoine de Saint-Exupery_ **

 

 

“I hate this weather, I hate these rocks and I hate you for making me come back here after I almost broke my neck last year.”

“In Spain, we have a-”

“Yes a thousand places like this one, I know, you made me hike through all of them,” Yuzuru threw his boyfriend a pointed look over his shoulder, “I remember.”

“It’s not that bad.”

“I hate you.”

“Yeah, you said that already.”

“Is everything okay?”

Yuzuru took a moment from complaining and whining to look at the person now behind him, an unamused face looked back at the couple for the tenth time that day.

_God, I hate this guy._

“Everything’s peachy, I just need to get fifty rocks off my hiking boots and then go to a spa for like a month after all of this and I’ll be fine.”

The tour guide didn’t seem the least amused at his sarcastic tone, so Javier decided to step in and avoid getting them both kicked out of the tour at this point.

“We’re fine Paulo, he’s just tired and cranky, he’s not used to hiking that much these days.”

“I can see that.”

_Did he just…?_

“Listen I’m-”

“A professional skater, trust me I know, but skating isn’t going to help you survive the next few meters up this hill so please listen to your boyfriend and try not to break anything or we’ll both lose our jobs.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

“We made it!”

On top of the highest hill of the island of Saint Michael, the largest and most populous island in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores, they could see the breathtaking view that had brought most of the members of their tour group there, in the first place.

The Seven Cities lagoon looked as beautiful as it was often depicted in books and pictures. The vast expansion of water looked surreal and almost out of a fantasy movie. It was not something you imagined inside your head, you couldn’t imagine something like that no matter how creative your mind was.

Just like promised, the lagoon on top of the volcano filling its crater reflected not only the expected common blue color but also the most vivid green off its waters, both colors were even more noticeable due to the narrow strait that separated both sides. The illusion of sorts was nothing short of spectacular.

It didn’t look natural.

It didn’t even look real.

 

 

           

 

 

 

“The Seven Cities lagoon everyone!”

Flashes and more flashes flooded his line of sight as every tourist fought for the better angle. Paulo shook his head at the behavior before him.

If only people took a moment to appreciate the true beauty of Nature and what really lies before them and not on their phone screens and cameras.

But, his job was not to educate the people he had brought there, he had to do his job and nothing more, nobody paid him enough to lecture adults on his free time, “So, who wants to know the reason behind the lagoon’s two odd colors? There’s a legend about how this all came to be.”

“Hey, Mr. Paulo do you think we could eat before listening to the story?”

He recognized that voice instantly and the accent with which he called for his name, almost on purpose didn’t exactly help his case much.

That was undoubtedly Mr. Hanyu, the Japanese tourist who decided to sign up for his tour of the archipelago, along with his boyfriend from Spain.

Paulo thought they looked cute together, and Mr. Fernandéz was incredibly nice to him and to everyone on the group but, his boyfriend was another matter altogether.

He glanced towards the end of the group to check if the brat he had the bad luck to meet that week, had actually made it alive out of the woods. Paulo spotted them huddled together against the security rails and sent a silent prayer for Mr. Fernandéz existence, he was pretty sure he had been the one that had kept the other one alive.

Don’t get him wrong he didn’t hate him or anything, but let’s just say that if the Japanese skater fell off the hill and into the lagoon, well…Paulo wouldn’t panic much.

Perhaps he would be slightly upset when he was killed by his billion fans after the incident.

According to the internet, Yuzuru Hanyu was a professional figure skater along with his partner Javier Fernández but, unlike the latter, Hanyu was still competing and he wasn’t just another skater on the field.

No.

Of course that Mr. Hanyu had to be a double Olympic champion and known all over the world as the God of figure skating.

Of course, he was.

Having both skaters on his tour meant extra security, extra attention and basically extra everything.

“Mr. Hanyu, I’m sorry but we must stick to the plan, first we’ll listen to a short legend that explains how this lagoon was created and then we’ll head down to the picnic area,” he didn’t wait for an answer but noticed how his boyfriend pushed him aside from the group and somehow managed to stop his whining.

He didn’t really care to know how.

“Now let us begin our story?” He waited until the small group had fallen completely silent, and only then, the tale began.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

_“You know, you can get out of those bushes anytime now.”_

_For the last couple of weeks, he had noticed how someone had been constantly sneaking up on him. At first, he had quietly taken his short knife from his back pocket, but once he had caught a glimpse of them he figured he didn’t need a weapon to deal with a kid._

_He would rather find out what they actually wanted. The shepherd became more and more curious about their intent as the days passed and they still didn’t show themselves._

_He was only a shepherd, what could they possibly want from him?_

_“Did you know I was here all along?”_

_“I spotted you like five days ago,” he gestured to their attire, “those robes are not really discreet.”_

_“You could have said something sooner.”_

_Now that they were out in the open, the shepherd could finally look at them and the sunlight seemed to play tricks on his mind. He was either really tired or dreaming._

_The person in front of him, if he could even call them that, was the most beautiful creature he had ever laid eyes on. Their pale skin seemed to shine against the light, and it was fair as the snow that covered the island through the miserable days of December all the way till March, their eyes were as blue and clear as the water that surrounded the island and their hair darker than the midnight sky._

_He looked at their lips and noticed how red they had become after they bit into them out of nervousness._

_“Who are you? What’s your name?” he asked them._

_“My name is Antília and does it matter who I am? Will you not play if you dislike who I turn out to be?”_

_The shepherd looked into his hands, where he held a simple flute._

_So he comes to hear me play?_

_“Of course not,” he got up from his makeshift wooden bench and stood in front of the creature, no, Antília, “I live in Aira and I’m a shepherd as you might have noticed. My name is-”_

_“I don’t need your name.”_

_“What?”_

_“It won’t change anything.”_

_“Yet, you gave me yours.”_

_“I wanted someone to know it, for once.”_

_Antília stared at the animals around them, like it was the first time they had ever seen such creatures._

_Perhaps it was._

_The shepherd didn’t question any of the stranger’s actions, he couldn’t call them that now, and just watched them try to pet the sheep._

_“I saw them before you know, in the books.”_

_The small lambs seemed to love the attention and cuddled his legs and even the older ones were completely enamored by the odd human, could he call them that?._

_“Will you at least tell me where you’re from?”_

_“I don’t know.” They didn’t raise their eyes to meet the shepherd’s green ones, yet he knew he would find only honestly on them._

_“Are you…lost?”_

_“No.”_

_“I see.”_

_Neither made another attempt at a conversation and surprisingly neither seemed to need more from each other, a shepherd sat on the soft grass and simply watched as his herd of animals fed themselves. Probably the loneliest soul on the island sat beside him, a lamb on his lap and his eyes on the massive volcanic crater in front of them._

_The shepherd had discovered this place a few years ago when obligations were not as heavy as they were now and the only limit for him was the beach that surrounded the island._

_It was peaceful even if the sight was absolutely overwhelming._

_He wondered if they had never seen this before. He wondered if they had questions about it like he had had all those years ago._

_Yet, he didn’t voice any of his thoughts and let the comfortable silence envelop them both._

_It was enough._

 

* * *

 

“Short story my ass…I'm so hungry, I'm going to die before he gets to the damn ending.”

“Shush!”

“Javi I swear to God I’m falling asleep…”

“Seriously, just let me listen to the damn story, it’s your fault we are here anyway.”

“How?”

“I suggested the Canarias islands and yet, you had to see the damn lagoon.”

“It’s pretty!”

“Gentlemen…”

“Sorry sorry, please carry on.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

_The shepherd didn’t expect to see them again the next day. He still wasn’t completely sure if he had dreamed it all. He found himself dreading that they would just go back to wherever they came from and forget about him._

_Judging from the type of clothes they had been wearing, the shepherd could presume they were part of some high ranked family from the north of the island for sure._

_Yet, he was selfish, he wanted to know more about them._

_Yes, they had been the most beautiful person he had ever seen but looks could be deceiving and his mother had always warned him that appearances told nothing about their people’s true nature._

_Just like the beautiful wolves that would attack his sheep at night, beautiful people could hide the darkest of hearts inside them._

_Yet, he earned to find out the truth._

_A rustle of leaves and the cracking of fallen wood branches gave him the answer he was seeking for. And joy seemed to fill every crevice of his body as he rose to his feet and turned to the forest behind him._

_They had come back._

_“You won’t stay in the bushes this time, will you?”_

 

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yet another update, hope you enjoy it and please tell me everything in the comments :P

 

 

**_Tears do not burn, except in solitude._ **

**_\- Emil Cioran_ **

 

 

_It became a routine, every day the shepherd would sit on the same spot by the clearing that overlooked the giant crater on top of the dormant volcano and wait for Antília. They had never made any promises or any sort of arrangement._

_Yet as the sun reached its highest point in the sky, the shepherd would play his flute and wait for them. By the second month of their meetings, they seemed to have finally reached an understanding and managed to speak at least a bit more freely._

_They both hadn’t noticed when things had changed or how, but suddenly words started to flow and the shepherd didn’t dare to stop Antília._

_Every day he craved more._

_They told him about how they had never left their home, how hard it was to live in a big house wanting for nothing and still having nothing._

_How their father didn’t allow them to leave even the house grounds and how their biggest wish was to visit the seven cities of the kingdom, one day._

_The shepherd in return had shared everything with them, how he had been born in a simple family that owned some land and dedicated their entire lives to their farm. How he had traveled through the entire island when he was younger and free from duties._

_“One day,” he told them, “one day I shall take with me and I’ll show you the most beautiful places on the island.”_

_Still, the shepherd couldn’t hold his curiosity any longer, “Will you tell me where you from? What’s your family trade? If you walked here then you must live close so perhaps our families are acquainted-”_

_“You know everything that there is to know about me, and I about you.”_

_“What does that mean?”_

_“I know you are a shepherd and like to play the flute, I know you are very handsome and have beautiful green eyes.”_

_“That’s not knowing someone, that barely defines who I am.”_

_“That’s enough for me.”_

_But it wasn’t enough for him._

_“Well then, suit yourself,” he got up, packed his flute on his satchel and collected his small herd of sheep, “perhaps that’s all that matters for you, but not for me. I have no idea who you are or where you come from, what if my head ends up on a pike or your family thinks that a dirty shepherd kidnapped you?”_

_He had almost stepped into the forest that would lead him home when he halted on his way and looked back to Antília, who looked serene as always and hadn’t moved an inch from their place on the grass, “You know what? Maybe it is enough because if I judged you from your looks, as you did with me, you seem like a spoiled brat that takes pleasure in running away from their duties just to linger around with the peasants and have some fun. I don’t even know if I believe your story about your mad father.”_

_Perhaps someone called for him to come back, but he didn’t linger long enough to listen._

 

 

* * *

 

 

“Who was that?” Javier asked his boyfriend as he came back to his side after taking a call. He resisted the urge to tell him that maybe Paulo would find it rude if he suddenly disappeared to take a call while he told his story. But then again, it might have been important.

Or he just wanted a chance to escape the whole thing. That one seemed more plausible.

“Brian. He wanted to check on us.”

Their coach had been by their side for many years now, and despite still denying it firmly, he still acted like a father to them. Always worrying, even during the offseason when they weren’t even competing.

Hell, he would check on Javi even if he didn’t compete anymore or train at the club. He was like the father they never had and the only person that Yuzuru had come to trust along the years besides Javier.

They both owed him a great deal, and somehow that made everything harder.

“That’s sweet of him, everything okay back there?”

“Jun let a raccoon loose inside the rink, but apart from that everything’s fine,” Yuzuru answered him like he was just telling him about a completely normal day at the TCC.

“I’m sorry he did what?” He knew that Jun was a troublemaker but not to the point of bringing wild animals into the club and risking everyone’s safety. Still completely unfazed, Yuzuru just went back to his original position, cuddled against his side with his head under his chin, grumbling under his breath about how he hated his new beard.

He might have heard some threats about shaving things while he was asleep.

The Spaniard just decided to ignore it and looked down at the younger one and cocked an eyebrow at him, waiting for the rest of the story.

“He’s like the Korean version of Snow White, the animals just find him. Remember last year when the squirrels started showing up inside our gym bags?”

That hadn’t been pretty.

“I thought that there was a broken window on the locker room?”

“That’s what I told the staff, Jun actually sneaked one inside and after a few hours, all of its family managed to get inside too.” Javier’s mind tried to conjure up the mental image of a family of squirrels just casually breaking in and taking over the TCC. He failed. “When I went to the lockers to get my water bottle I found one of those furry things inside my bag and Jun started to panic so I just opened a window and messed up the lock a bit.”

Yuzuru’s antics could be scary to the average person, but not to him. Not anymore at least.

He gave up trying to talk him out of dangerous situations a long while ago.

“You know that, to this day, everyone really believes that those squirrels just broke in.”

“Good,” Yuzuru turned to their still enthusiastic-as-ever guide and asked in his most innocent voice, “What did I miss? Oh no, is it over? Shame on me…shame on my cow...”

Javier smirked down at him, “Stop it,” he had managed to survive this hellish trip up until now, being kicked out of the tour after all the trouble, didn’t seem as appealing as it did to his boyfriend, “you actually missed the part where the shepherd walks out and stops giving a fuck, quite the attitude don’t you think?”

Yuzuru snorted, “He hanged out with some crazy person that refused to tell him who they were, any normal human being would have walked out on them a while ago.”

“Oh please, that shepherd was completely whipped and to be fair they weren’t exactly human…But seriously, now that the story has actually reached a somewhat interesting part he’s like…dramatizing the whole thing and it’s hilarious.”

Yuzuru’s answer was to just turn around and bury his face inside Javier’s leather jacket with a groan, “Kill me now.”

 

 

* * *

 

_“My father is a King, what does that make me?”_

_It was late in the evening, and the shepherd had fallen asleep on the soft grass like usual, but this time he had changed his route and had ended up in a secluded field somewhere before the top of the hill. This time he hadn’t brought his sheep and just decided to stop thinking about Antília and everything that had happened for the last couple of months._

_That person meant trouble for sure. And the shepherd couldn’t jeopardize whatever little he had just because he had been careless and surrendered fully to a stranger._

_So, he really hadn’t expected to be woken up from his nap with a question like that and tired blue eyes looking back at him anxiously._

_He planned to completely avoid meeting Antília. That didn’t seem to have worked out well._

_Whatever hope he had left about forgetting about them had been thrown into the wind..._

_He barely had the time to process what he had just heard. The King was Antília’s father? He had expected them to be part of a noble family, but this was completely above what he had imagined. It all made sense though, the royal palace was located in a very secluded area within the woods, he had never approached the gates but he had stumbled upon the estate a few times before, it was fairly close to their usual meeting point. Still, he had never a word about the King’s children before._

_Why had he kept them a secret for so long?_

_He sat up and took some time to look at them, they were kneeling by his side and seemed out of breath, their usual perfect hair completely disheveled and their boots covered in dirt, “What on earth happened to you?”_

_Antília’s face suddenly got even redder and quickly bowed their head in some attempt to hide it, “You weren’t…there.” They rose a finger and pointed upwards._

_The shepherd followed the direction they were pointing at and realized what they meant._

_The top of the hill, the clearing that oversees the crater…_

_Antília had gone there to meet him and he hadn’t been there, so they had bravely searched for him all day._

_He shuddered at the thought of the dangers the other one could have faced, because of him. Still, his heart felt warm all the same._

_Looking once again into the still quivering blue irises he answered their question, “That would make you part of the Royal family,” he tried to lighten up their spirits and bowed his head in a mocking gesture of respect, “your Highness.”_

_“Stop,” Antília said sharply, the shepherd looked up in confusion._

_“Your Highness?”_

_“Stop all of this…” they vaguely gestured around in the shepherd’s direction, “we are not strangers and we are not in a palace, I’m me and you are…you.”_

_“That’s easy to say when it’s not your neck on the line.”_

_“Nobody knows I’m here, there’s no need for formalities.”_

_“How…? Are they searching for you while we are together? Do you do this just for the fun of it?”_

_He would tolerate a lot but being used as a source of entertainment like a toy was not one of them._

_Antília seemed instantly alarmed by the rising tone of his voice and how he had quickly gotten to his feet, threatening once again to leave them alone to their own designs and mischief. Surprisingly, before the shepherd could take a step away from them, they stayed on their knees and grabbed one of his hands within their own and pleaded “No, please don’t go, I’ll tell you everything.”_

_“Everything or I will drag you to the palace myself.” He threatened, but still, let himself be pulled back into the ground and sat beside them._

_Antília kept their word._

_They told the shepherd everything. From their isolation since they were small, inside the palace, and how their appearance had been nothing but a curse for them since they were born, because of it he had been incapable of ever interacting with people outside the house, for his father dreaded someone might harm them and once they reached adulthood he feared the constant arrival of suitors and how they seemed desperate to marry them or take them away from the island._

_The shepherd wondered if Antília realized how wrong all of that actually was. They were not an object one could keep hidden forever inside walls. They were supposed to be free and live their life fully, discover the world and all of its possibilities, royalty or not._

_“He’s all I’ve got.” They told him, their voice low and his eyes no longer shimmering like they had been before as they talked about all of their friends inside the palace._

_By friends, he quickly realized that they meant servants._

_Antília seemed almost afraid that now that he knew everything about them, he would leave like the day before._

_The shepherd looked at their hands still intertwined between them and squeezed their pale hand lightly as if telling them that no, he wouldn’t leave them, that yes, he was thankful that they had finally opened up to him. That they had shared their burdens and worries with him._

_“What if one day,” he started, “you fall in love with one of your suitors?” the words came out with a slightly uneven tone, but he quickly dismissed it and carried on, “would you be allowed to leave?”_

_Their usual pale complexion quickly changed to a faint pink on his cheeks and the shepherd wondered how they could get even more alluring than before._

_“I don’t know, I’ve never fallen in love so I’ll only know then.”_

_“I see.” He simply said._

_The thought of suitors lining up to their door made his insides boil, but still, he didn’t wish that the price they had to pay would be their complete isolation in order to avoid their unwanted affection._

_“Does it change…anything?” Antília suddenly asked._

_“What do you mean?”_

_“Who I am…does it change anything?”_

_It changed everything, they were no longer a stranger, their father was the King of the Island and all of its seven cities. The shepherd could really lose everything if someone ever found out. His family, his life…he would be risking it all. Yet the answer came easily to him._

_“It changes nothing.”_

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm having a lot of fun with this story so far, what was supposed to be a one-shot has morphed into such a fun ride for me :P

 

 

_**Tears hinder sorrow from becoming despair.** _

**_\- Leigh Hunt_ **

 

 

“What are you thinking about?” Javier had looked away from Yuzuru for three seconds and the younger one had already found his way towards the edge of the cliff.

_When did he even move?_

He immediately followed him and prepared himself to possibly talk him out of drowning someone.

“I’m just pondering some stuff.”

_That is not good._

“About…?”

“About possibilities,” he pointed towards the end of the hill, “like if I jumped from this cliff and rolled my way down to the lagoon…would I still hear Paulo under the water?”

Javier tried, he really did. But the solemn look on his boyfriend’s face as he shared his latest plan made him lose all of his self-control, he laughed out loud, and even though he tried to quickly cover his mouth with his hands.

It had been too late.

_Oh shit._

“You think my story is that funny, Mr. Fernandéz? I’m flattered.”

Paulo had stopped talking once again and the Spanish skater could already predict that this was the last time either of them would be allowed on the island of Saint Michael.

_Shame._

“I’m sorry, I was just…” he tried to come up with an excuse, something to save his face, but the guide simply turned back to the group deciding to ignore any attempt at redemption from his part.

 

 

* * *

 

_“And then he snored so loudly, oh my lord, you should have seen him! He woke up by himself!”_

_“Oh no…”_

_“And all this bread I had in my pockets and inside jacket just fell around me!”_

_“What did you do?”_

_“The obvious thing to do. I told him that I was going to feed the ducks by the pond.”_

_“And he bought it?”_

_“Yes, even though we never had a pond or ducks.”_

_The shepherd threw his head back, as he laughed at Antília’s hilarious stories about their daily antics to escape their father after he fell asleep for hours during every afternoon._

_He had also learned that after they were confident enough to wander around the woods, they had also ventured beyond them and upon stumbling on some of the poor families by the coast, Antília had had their first contact with the harsh reality._

_They had been accompanied by their most trusted guard and had decided to step into the soft sand by the beaches for the first time. Along the way, they had found the small villages that housed the fishermen and their families. They lived quite far from any city so their homes were simple without any usual splendor that you would find in any big estate in one of the seven cities._

_The children sometimes played on the streets and shoes were often a luxury. People didn't have the same healthy glow like the ones he saw in Antuab or Ansalli. The tides and the daily catch were the ones that dictated their fate._

_From that day onwards, they liked to sneak out of the palace grounds with whatever they could carry on them and visit the poorest families and often even the sick._

_The shepherd didn’t know if he should be happy for them or worried to death. Antília was not used to the real world, it would take a long time for them to learn what he himself had learned over thirty years._

_Still, he couldn’t help but feel amazed at the other’s kindness and humility, they were everything that a royal should be in the first place._

_And to think that they had never stepped foot outside their palace…_

_“Have you tried talking to your father again? About leaving the palace’s grounds, perhaps with a full army if that would ease his mind?”_

_Antília played quietly with their favorite lamb, its squeals filling the clearing. They let go of the baby and it made a displeased sound at the prospect of no more cuddling from the beautiful master’s friend, “He wasn’t always like this, I don’t remember it but my servants told me stories…from before.”_

_“Before…?”_

_“Before my mother died.” They answered._

_“Right, the Queen…I’m so sorry I shouldn’t have-”_

_“It’s okay, I don’t remember much about her anyway,” Antília’s eyes seemed to glaze over and the shepherd wished he could shoulder all the sadness for them, he regretted prying into such painful matters, “it’s just this feeling of...saudade? I can’t explain, it just won’t go away even after all these years.”_

_The older one decided to be brave for once and take a leap of faith, he pulled the royal one into his arms and cradled the back of their head in his hand._

_He tried to convey his feelings through a simple gesture._

_You are not alone._

_I’m here._

_I won’t leave._

_The shepherd knew that he alone couldn’t push their sadness away, things couldn’t be fixed just like that, but he would be damned if he let them feel lonely again._

_“I’m sorry I don’t know why I’m crying.”_

_He just rubbed mindless circles on the other’s back, he could feel Antília’s shoulders starting to shake slightly and something wet seemed to seep into his clothed shoulder._

_Perhaps this was too intimate for them._

_Perhaps this was inappropriate._

_The shepherd needed to make a decision._

_So, he tightened his hold on them even more._

 

* * *

 

 

 

“Let’s take a break, shall we? Let us continue our beautiful tale on the exact same clearing where our characters met every day.”

Some people cheered but a tiny girl crept from behind her mother’s legs and raised her hand. Her name was Lara, Yuzuru remembered her from the beginning of the tour and how much fun they had together. He had been lucky enough that no one had actually recognized him once their group had assembled, despite Javier’s protest of how this was a bad idea and how they should go around on their own.

He had almost managed to convince Yuzuru with the sweet promise of some time alone until the Japanese skater’s manager had caught word of their plans.

It didn’t take long for him to call Yuzuru and explained to them, in deep detail, how dangerous it would be if a random group of people found them wandering around the woods. He would rather they joined a normal tourist group where he could do some damage control or pay for some security detail and deal with twenty-something people going crazy at the same time than a whole random village they might stumble upon.

Yuzuru had been extremely impressed at how he had put together a security detail all the way from Japan and dealt with the organization that managed the tours on the island of Saint Michael. He hated being told what to do, but he wasn’t alone and he hated putting Javier through dangerous and unnecessary situations, so he relented and let his assistant take care of everything for them.

Once they landed on the island of Saint Michael and joined the tour…Yuzuru realized that this had been the best decision of his life after the Portuguese tour guide, Paulo, had introduced himself.

Until someone had pointed a finger at him and screamed his name.

He didn’t know who ran faster, his security guard or Javier.

In the middle of the chaos, a little child came running to him and screamed, “That’s not Zuzu, Zuzu is prettier and has prettier clothes than that. He sparkles.”

Everyone in the group started laughing immediately, even though most of them had no idea what was happening or why. The little girl's stunt had diverted everyone’s attention and Paulo seemed to regain some of his natural color once again.

He didn’t seem so close to having a stroke anymore.

The guide told the group that there would be a special security detail to accompany them as they climbed the hill to the lagoon, for their own protection as the insurance policy required of them.

Yuzuru had never heard of such an idiotic excuse. But if it would take the attention off of him, he could deal with it.

Out of a sudden, Lara had pulled on his hand and gestured for him to bend down so she could whisper into his ear, “I really liked your pink fairy costume.”

He smiled down at her and asked her mother is she could walk with them for a while. Upon hearing the stunned mother’s consent, he picked her up and walked back to Javier.

“Are you really going to carry her all the way to the hill?”

“Nope, you are,” he pushed the little girl into his boyfriends’ arms without any ceremony and smiled at her, completely satisfied with the outcome, “this one gets special treatment, tell me child, what’s your name and, what would you like to know about the great Yuzuru Hanyu?”

Yuzuru shook his head and almost laughed at the memory of his boyfriend’s grunts and moans as they climbed up the mountain and how after a while he had released him from the torture, and delivered the girl back to her mother.

It had been the highlight of the whole trip so far.

Paulo spotted Lara’s still raised hand and nodded at her direction, “Yes, dear?”

“We are going to the clearing from the story?”

“Yes darling, we are! Isn’t it exciting?”

Her face didn’t exactly show any excitement at the grim new adventure that awaited for them, “Does that mean more climbing?”

The Portuguese guide sighed and looked over to the couple, and with a smirk, he answered her, “Yes, we still have some climbing left to do! Careful with the rocks,” he looked straight into Yuzuru’s murderous eyes, “they get into people’s shoes.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

“I think we might need to sell my gold medals, if we pitch in yours…it might be enough.”

“What why?”

“Bail money,” Javier looked at him, confused as ever, “you know, I might need it after I kill him.”

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Halladir and their amazing tips about ancient skating traditions, I think it would be fun if our legend characters tried something fun like skating :) Perhaps Yuzuru will like the damn story a bit more :P

 

**_Tears are words that need to be written_ **

**_\- Paulo Coelho_ **

 

 

_“I have a surprise for you!”_

_“A surprise?”_

_For someone raised surrounded by gold, Antília seemed to be surprised at every little thing that the shepherd insisted on showing them._

_They had traveled through the vast woods that surrounded the lagoon, he had even taken them to a different city every day so they could see their own kingdom with their own eyes. Needless to say, Antília loved every second of their adventures. Their eyes wide at every new experience and at every new discovery._

_And if the shepherd felt himself falling for their innocent and kind heart, well, he would never let his feeling be known._

_He was sure they would not be reciprocated, and the thought of losing Antília forever was far more painful than holding back every second that he was around them._

_Their time was precious to him._

_“What is it?”_

_“It’s snowing, so it’s too cold for us to go explore Ansodi as we planned,” he threw an extra jacket on top of Antília’s shoulders and almost let himself coo at them as they wrapped themselves on the fabric, “you need to start bringing warmer clothes.”_

_“I don’t own warmer clothes,” watching the shepherd’s face morph into a confused expression, they added, “why would I need warmer clothes when I’m not supposed to leave the palace where I’m surrounded by fifty fireplaces?”_

_“Right, hadn’t thought of that.”_

_The shepherd pulled them along and soon they found a small lake surrounded by majestic trees completely covered by snow, a waterfall stood at the very end of the meadow, its waters completely frozen as the lake below it._

_“It’s beautiful!”_

_He looked at his side and found Antília smiling widely at the view in front of them, “Yes,” he said, “it is.”_

_Antília had really run forward and touched the frozen surface, “I only saw this kind of thing in my books.”_

_The shepherd smiled and pulled two seemingly wooden contraptions out his satchel and showed them to his companion, “These, are for us to be able to glide around the ice.”_

_They didn’t seem very enthusiastic as they noticed what lied under the small wood planks “Those are bones, real bones?”_

_“Yes, they are, have you ever tried something like this before?”_

_Antília threw him a withering look, “Where would I try it? On a puddle in my room?”_

_“Right, right,” the shepherd could feel himself getting redder by the second and shook his head at his own stupidity, as he kneeled down and tried to strap the wood planks to the other’s boots._

_“Wait, how on earth will I be able to move?”_

_“Do you trust me?” he asked them._

_To both of their own surprises, Antília didn’t take more than a second to answer him._

_“Yes.”_

_The shepherd simply smiled and kept working on both of their feet, “Then that’s all you need to do.”_

 

 

* * *

 

The first one to point out the obvious was Lara, who pointed a chubby finger at the small lake in front of them, the deafening sound of the waterfall surrounded the group as phones and cameras were once more, fished out and flashes were let loose “This is not the pretty place you talked about.”

Paulo crouched down next to her and patted her head, “You are right, little one, it isn’t. This is the lake our characters skated in, back when skates were not something fancy and expensive,” he looked towards Yuzuru’s direction, “and just made out of bones and wood, the rich people might have had some metallic version of it but it was still a very primitive version of the ones we have now.”

“Ew.” Lara scurried back to her mother’s side, "Zuzu's skates are pretty and have wings!"

The tour guide caught Yuzuru's smug face and couldn’t help himself, “It wasn’t as bad as it seems, it just took a bit more effort. You know, even when the actual boots and blades were invented for competitions, skating wasn’t all show and sparkles back in the old times. People had actual talent.”

“This motherfu-”, a muffled sound caught Paulo’s attention, he looked back at the Japanese skater’s direction as he rose to his feet and almost laughed as Yuzuru shot daggers at him through his eyes while Javier slapped a hand in front of his mouth. He could hear Javier whisper something to his boyfriend like, “Language!”

He had figured that this topic would eventually lead to some snarky remarks from the skater superstar.

But it had been so worth it.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_“For someone that has never done this before, that was amazing.”_

_They were both out of breath and after gliding around for the last couple of hours and taking at least half of that to make Antília stop and rest, they had just thrown themselves into the snow-covered grass._

_The cold was seeping through their clothes, yet neither seemed to mind._

_“Just because you are bad at things, doesn’t mean I have to be even worse.”_

_Realizing what his companion had just said, he grabbed a handful of snow and threw it on their face._

_“You didn’t…” they sputtered, cleaning the frozen water out of their face and their now soaked coat._

_“Oh, yes I did,” he taunted them, and then bowed mockingly, “what are you going to do about it, your highness?”_

_“I’m going to…I’m going to…”_

_“You’re going what?”_

_Antília just pursed their lips and looked at their feet, their pout making the shepherd’s mind lose all the coherence for a moment, and when he focused back on the person in front of him it was too late. Antília was now right in front of him, they were so close that the shepherd could feel their body heat._

_They had never been so close, except for that one time when the shepherd had thrown caution into the wind and tried to comfort the lonely soul._

_So close, the shepherd could just bend a little and he would finally feel their lips on his._

_Would they like it?_

_Would they push him away?_

_Perhaps he could be brave again. He closed eyes and out of a sudden something cold and wet was dripping all over his face._

_Antília had dropped a giant ball of snow on top of his head, he could feel it getting inside his clothes and back._

_What the…_

_“This was fun! Shall we do it again?”_

 

 

* * *

 

“Oh my God,” Yuzuru threw his hands up, “this is getting cringier by the second, how can he just tell this kind of things to people? It’s indecent!”

Javier sighed and just patted his back, trying to calm him down, “Look, if this is really that bad for you…perhaps we should just go back and down and find something to eat. We can wait for them at the end?”

His boyfriend simply looked back at the group.

“You know we can’t just leave. We need to stay until the end.”

“Right.”

The Spaniard wondered if it was worth it. But then again, the story was about to come to it’s anyway. I wouldn’t be long now.

Meanwhile, Paulo announced to the group, “I hope you liked the beautiful waterfall, it’s time for us to finally find that clearing and finish our story, the best is yet to come!”

From the corner of his eye, he saw as Yuzuru immediately tried to jump inside the lake and Javier ran after him, to stop him from drowning himself, no doubt. The security guard behind them looked slightly conflicted as he pondered if he was supposed to protect the skater from himself as well.

He should warn them that the rocks by the water, were kind of slippery.

He really should.

“Let us move on folks, there’s a lot of ground to cover till the top.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

_Today was the day._

_Today the shepherd would be brave again, he would tell Antília about his growing feelings and if the other didn’t share them, well, he would graciously take their rejection and make sure they understood that they didn’t have to stop meeting or enjoying each other’s company._

_He was sure they could still be friends, he would not let this come between…whatever their relationship was at the moment._

_Except._

_Antília never showed up._

_He looked into the sky and the sun was at its highest, the usual time for them to meet._

_Where were they?_

_Maybe they got held up by something. The shepherd sat down and put the pair of simple skates right beside him._

_He had never seen Antília so happy as they had been while on the ice. They wanted to do it again, so he found himself sharpening the bones and making sure they looked nicer than before, he had even carved some designs on the wood planks._

_The shepherd looked up to the sky once again._

_It had been hours since their meeting time._

_Maybe they had gotten lost...Or attacked._

_No, there hadn’t been bandits around this side of the island in years and hadn’t they said that their guard always made sure the path was clear?_

_Maybe he should go to the palace and…and what?_

_He couldn’t expose them like that._

_But wouldn’t it be better than never knowing what happened?_

_No, he had to-_

_Deep and heavy steps could be heard from somewhere inside the woods and the shepherd quickly got up._

_“Who’s there?” He recognized Antília light steps by now. This was someone else._

_A man, almost as tall as him covered by a thick fur coat and a long sword hanging from his hip, emerged from the trees. He took back his hood from his face and his eyes seemed to somehow recognize him._

_“Are you the shepherd?”_

_“I have a name, but yes I am a shepherd,” he had never seen this man before in his life, “who wants to know?”_

_“My name is Miguel, I’m part of Antília’s personal guard.”_

_“Did something happen? Should I-”_

_“I’ve come to deliver a message,” the guard cut him off instantly, “and I’m afraid it’s not a good one.”_

 

 

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will include a picture of the clearing I'm always talking about, but it's not a real representation of Azores, it's something I imagined as I read the legend at first. If you ever read the original version, you will notice that it's very short and almost everything you've read has been made up. So, I ask of you to bear with my imagination of the possible places that the story tells us about :)

 

 

_**Tears are words the heart can't express** _

_**\- Gerard Way** _

 

 

“And this is the famous clearing where our beloved characters met every day!”

They all looked around the small clearing that seemed to welcome them in. Beautiful trees framed the picture-worthy view and somehow it made the whole thing look…intimate, warm and infinitely beautiful like almost everything they had seen up until now. Everyone felt like they were stepping into something private, like they shouldn’t be there at all.

They felt like intruders.

Well, some people said that places can still tell stories. They don’t forget as easily as humans.

From up there, the view was quite similar to the one they had found below, yet with the new height they could see the fog that settled on top of the crater and the lagoon, it was as spectacular or even more so than before.

 

 

   

 

 

“So now, let’s all sit down and enjoy this beautiful weather and view as we carry on with our tale. I promise that our next stop will be the picnic park.”

Yuzuru was somewhat happier at the promise of food, but still scrunched up his nose at the prospect of sitting down on the grass, “These are Dior, who’s going to pay for the dry cleaning?”

The Spaniard already sitting on the floor, took off his jacket and spread it on the grass, fluffing it up he patted the spot next to him, “Sit.”

“Fine,” he muttered under his breath and he threw himself down on top of the jacket, “you think he’ll share all the details because I’m two seconds away from-”

“Shush.” Yuzuru pouted but relented and stopped halfway through his rant.

Everyone had sat on a large circle around Paulo, as they waited for him to finish the tale, he had been watching the amusing scene between the skaters and as he walked around the circle, he whispered to no one in particular, “Roll over and play dead while you’re at it.”

He knew the Japanese would hear it, and one second later Yuzuru had grabbed the nearest rock he could find around him and was ready to throw it at him. Javier once again grabbed his hand and threw the rock in the opposite direction, “If you kill him then this whole trip is pointless, remember?”

His boyfriend didn’t answer and decided to just throw himself back and lay on the floor like a starfish but couldn’t help but raise his head and take a peak around the group when a sudden yelp was heard and then a loud thud.

The tour guide had avoided his wrath, but not a tiny leg that suddenly popped out of nowhere and was just precisely on his feet’s way.

Yuzuru Hanyu had found a new best friend.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_“I’ve come to deliver a message,” the guard cut him off instantly, “and I’m afraid it’s not a good one”_

_That didn’t sound good._

_“What happened? Is Antília okay?” He panicked at the thought of them possibly falling ill but not being able to be by their side._

_What could he do?_

_“Antília is fine…for the time being.”_

_“Explain yourself.” The shepherd’s patience was running thin, there was no time for middle truths._

_“They told you about the suitors, correct?”_

_“Yes, what about them?”_

_“One of them has come back, he brought his weight in gold and more, in order to sway the king,” the guard looked defeated as if something that he had battled against for so many years had finally come back to haunt him, “I think it might work this time.”_

_The King hadn’t allowed their child out of the palace grounds for years, would gold really be what it took to them away? Was his child’s life worth less than every gold in the world?_

_“Wil the king really be tempted by it and give up Antília just like that?”_

_Miguel seemed conflicted, and watching the man become so unsettled made the shepherd’s heart squeeze even more. If their personal guard, their friend, a trusted member of the court who had watched over them for years and knew exactly what their father was capable of, seemed worried…then things could really be as bad as they seemed._

_For all of them._

_“Could that be worse than the fate that already awaits them? Being closed off to the world forever and inside a gold cage?” Miguel asked._

_The shepherd had never actually considered it. He had been blinded by jealousy and worry about his own heart. About the mere thought of losing Antília. He had never considered that perhaps, marrying one of their suitors would actually be their only way to escape their father’s prison._

_“I don’t want them to be stuck inside a palace for the rest of their lives but being bought like an object and…and..”_

_“And what?”_

_And taken away from me, before I even had a chance to save them myself._

_“Do you know what this suitor’s intentions are? Can you guarantee that he won’t hurt them?”_

_“I can’t,” Miguel answered honestly, his face fell and the shepherd wondered if there was something more about this man than what met the eye. Did he really care about them only as a loyal servant, destined to protect them?_

_Or there was actually something more?_

_“Does…Antília care for this man?”_

_The guard laughed, yet without any humor. Only out of despair at their whole situation, “Antília has been crying for hours…” he seemed almost uncomfortable to share this piece of information with him but continued nonetheless, “They said that they would rather die than marry him.”_

_“Then we must find a way, another way to free them from their father, but not like this.”_

_“We?” he asked._

_“Yes,” the shepherd answered, “I care for them and I won’t let someone just take them away from me, “he quickly realized what he said, “I mean from us, of course.”_

_“What do you propose?”_

_What was Antília’s father greatest fear? Antília leaving him, leaving the island and everything behind._

_“Listen, where does this suitor come from?”_

_“The North-”_

_“But from where exactly did the gold come from? I know this island and gold is not something easy to come by unless you are part of the royal family and have access to the royal mines.”_

_“He went to the Americas, I believe…what does that help us?”_

_“Antília’s father might be swayed by gold, but do you think he would actually let them leave the kingdom?” If they were lucky, he wouldn’t._

_“He didn’t say anything about taking them away though…” Miguel reminded him._

_“It doesn’t matter, you only need to convince the King that he will,” suddenly it all came together, there was hope, “we must use his obsession in our favor.”_

 

 

* * *

 

 

“Hey”, Javier poked his boyfriend’s cheek trying not to grimace at the drool all over his shirt, “wake up.”

The younger skater opened one eye and looked around the circle of people still sitting on the ground, “Are the embarrassing parts over?”

“No, the shepherd just came up with a plan.”

“Right, lovely, wake me up again in like…two hundred years, at this rate I’m sure dear Paulo over there will still be telling this damn story.”

From the other side of the circle, Lara had crawled behind everyone’s back after whispering something to her mother, and almost undetected she managed to reach the couple. She looked down at Yuzuru and it took him a while to understand what was happening, so Javier decided to help.

“Lap.” He whispered.

“Lap?” he asked dumbly, then shook his head “Right, lap, yeah you can sit on my lap,” he helped her settle down on top of him and she just climbed right in like it was completely normal, Yuzuru would never let a tiny creature get so close to him, but she had earned the privilege.

After she plopped herself down on him, she yawned and told him in her most bored voice, “This is boring, I want the princess and the shepherd to kiss.”

Yuzuru spluttered at the little girl’s straightforwardness, he looked at Javier and silently asked for help. He just shrugged at him and ignore his dying-whale-like whine, “Well maybe it will happen soon, don’t worry kid,” he looked at the imponent lagoon in front of them, while he twirled around one of her braids, “what kind of legend would this one be, without a kiss?”

 

 

* * *

 

 

_“It’s been hours since our usual meeting time, how did you know that I was still here?”_

_“I didn’t.”_

_“I don’t understand, why didn’t Antília send you earlier?”_

_“They didn’t send me.”_

_“Can you stop with the riddles and just tell me?”_

_“Antília didn’t want me to come, they thought that you wouldn’t care.”_

_“What?”_

_“They thought that if they disappeared you would just move on with your life and forget everything.”_

_“How can they think that…” How would he ever be able to forget? When his every thought revolved around them, day and night? “Why did you came then?”_

_“I know that you cared,” Miguel slightly blushed as he explained his reasons, “they told me about every single one of your adventures, I had to listen to every detail of your meetings…”_

_“I see…”_

_“Don’t be angry at them, can you imagine having only one person to talk to in this world? One friend for the rest of your life?”_

_He couldn’t._

_“It was because I listened to their every single word that I knew that you cared, that I knew I had to at least let you know of what was happening.”_

_“Thank you, really…if you hadn’t come then I would have done something stupid like going to the palace myself.”_

_“That would have been the end, for all of us.”_

 

 

* * *

 

 

Lara’s eyes seemed to close on their own at any time, so he gently shook her and whispered as quiet as he could, “Hey you can’t sleep now.”

“What, why? I can sleep till the kissy part.” She rubbed her eyes with her tiny fists and Yuzuru cooed at her cuteness, he looked at her mother, she smiled back at him and mouthed a silent thank you, for probably giving her a break. He poked her nose and told her a secret, “the best part is coming, for sure.”

“Yes!”

Perhaps the tiny creatures weren’t that bad.

Perhaps he should talk to Javier about them.

One or two wouldn’t be too bad, wouldn’t they?

“Javi?”

But, Javier had been looking at them the whole time. And like always, he seemed to read his mind. Yuzuru could feel the air leaving his lungs as he stared at the eyes of the man he loved and saw how his eyes were suddenly filled with unshed tears.

He hadn’t meant to bring everything up.

He wondered if would ever get easier to think about it with time.

The Spaniard just bowed his head and hid his face from both of them, like he always did whenever he tried to spare Yuzuru from his own anguish.

He hated it.

“Lara I think you need to go, your mother must miss you by now.” He pulled the small girl up from his lap and gestured for her to go back to where she came from.

“Are you mad, Zuzu? Mom always says I talk too much but I tried-”

“I’m not mad Lara, I just think you shouldn’t just go to strangers like that, not everyone is as nice as me. So please go, I’m tired.” He didn’t dare to look at her, yet he could hear her quiet sniffles as she made her way back.

He had a face to keep up, he couldn't just cry. He stubbornly wiped his eyes on his white sweater paws and swore that no one would ever see Yuzuru Hanyu look defeated.

Yuzuru Hanyu didn’t cry.

The story carried on and so did Yuzuru, his hand tightly clasped on Javier’s as they both mourned silently for something that could never be.

 

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

 

 

**Tears shed for another person are not a sign of weakness.**

**They are a sign of a pure heart.**

**\- José N. Harris**

 

 

 

_The shepherd found himself waiting, again._

_He was tired of waiting, tired of not knowing what was happening._

_He had asked Miguel to let him help somehow, yet the guard had told him to just wait, as if that were any easier than storming inside the castle himself and get Antília out of there._

_Would he even see them again?_

_Someone was heading towards the clearing, he could hear some footsteps and the sound of leaves and wooden branches being snapped in half under the stranger’s boots._

_These were not Miguel’s footsteps, no they were too light._

_Antília?_

_He didn’t have time to think about it because a small body erupted from the tree line and jumped into his arms._

_The shepherd had barely caught them but as he recognized Antília body against his own, he just wrapped his arms around them and swore that he would never let them go again._

_“You are here.” He whispered as he buried his face into their hair. They had never been this close and the shepherd found it addicting. Like he didn’t remember what it was like to not have them pulled against his chest, safe and quivering under his touch._

_He pulled them and held their face between his palms, he had never noticed how small their face was and how it perfectly fitted in his hands. Perhaps it was another sign of how they belonged no one else but each other._

_The shepherd could only hope._

_“I’m here.” They said while they smiled up at him._

_“What happened? Your father? Your suitor and the…”_

_“Miguel told me about your idea, so we managed to make my father believe that he would take me away from him and the island. He might be mad but his obsession with me overruled everything else.”_

_“Is it selfish of me to thank your father’s madness, this one time?”_

_“No, I thank it myself. I don’t know what I would have done if…if I was taken away and..”_

_“And you would never see your home again.” He finished for them._

_“My home?”_

_“The island?” Their kingdom._

_Antília looked at the shepherd like something didn’t make sense._

_“I know you love this island more than anything, but I couldn’t care less if I got to live here or anywhere else, as long as…as long as I got to share my life with the one I love.”_

_“Oh…” he still couldn’t get used to Antília’s bluntness, “well, you got something wrong though.”_

_“What?”_

_“I don’t love this island more than anything, there’s actually something or someone that I would trade for this whole island and everything that I own, in a heartbeat.”_

_He felt himself leaning down and getting impossibly closer to them, Antília looked up and suddenly they seemed unsure as to what they should do, “And who would that be?”_

_“Antília?” He wouldn’t let them in doubt for long._

_“Yes?” They whispered, the shepherd could feel their breath on his lips, he looked them in the eyes and searched for any hint of uncertainty on those blue irises._

_“May I kiss you?”_

_“Please.”_

_Once Antília closed their eyes, the shepherd didn’t waste a second longer and pressed their lips together, gently, without any rush. He knew that they didn’t they have any experience before him, this was their first kiss so as much as he craved to ravish those lips completely, he took the lead and slowly molded their lips together It was perfect, just like that. Antília seemed scared at first but quickly moved their lips against his, mimicking his own._

_Noticing how they were both running out of breath, he pulled away, “I love, I love you.” He whispered as they tried to get their breathing back to normal, “I was so worried, I couldn’t do anything, I just…”_

_“It’s okay, Miguel told me everything,” they gestured behind them and leaning against a tree, the guard just casually looked ahead trying to give them some privacy._

_“That jackass has been here the whole time?”_

_“Hey, he’s the one that saved me so please, be nice?”_

_“Fine”, they were right, without Miguel, Antília could have been lost to all of them, “Is he going to watch us from now on, though?”_

_“He’s not here to watch us, he just needs to be near us in case something goes wrong, my father has been even more paranoid and I can’t stay for one second more than I can.”_

_“So he’s like a sun clock.”_

_“You are an ungrateful little shit-” Miguel was already on his way towards them when he heard the shepherd’s joke._

_“Boys, calm down.” Antília gestured towards Miguel, “you don’t need to watch us all the time, we won’t leave this place and if we ever do, we will warn you. You just need to come to us when the time for me to go back, is near. And you,” they shoved their finger on the shepherd’s chest, “need to agree with this arrangement or we can all get into serious trouble, and all of this would have been for nothing."_

_He didn’t like the idea or the feeling of being constantly watched over, but still, it would be better than any other option._

_“I agree with anything that will allow me to see you, even if for a few seconds every day.”_

_They heard a groan from the man beside them, “I have a feeling I’m going to regret this.”_

 

 

* * *

 

Yuzuru had managed to calm down and even found himself smiling as Lara grinned from ear to ear once Paulo got to the “kissy” part of the tale. He had done a good job, that much he would give him. Still, to hear the story told like that gave him shivers all over his skin. He turned to Javier who had also gone back to his usual goofy self and was laughing at everything that Paulo told the group.

It was like a child rediscovering things all over again.

Oh, how he loved this man.

“Javi?”

“Humn?”

“Do you think we should try again? Perhaps a boy and this time we could-”

“Do you really wish to go through all of that again?” Javier’s eyes hardened instantly, Yuzuru never regretted his words so badly. It had been too soon.

“Javi…”

“It almost broke you once, I thought I had lost you and you still want to put yourself through all of it again? Put both of us through that kind of pain again?”

“This time we’ll be prepared, we’ll do thing differently…” he reasoned.

“Do you honestly think that it will change anything? Knowing already the outcome and not being able to stop it?”

Javier was right, knowing the future of the child would not make the pain of losing them any less…hard. Yet he also blamed himself for not being able to give his lover a family. They had tried once.

Was it really worth it to try again?

“I don’t know…” he felt lost, he needed someone to reassure him that it would be okay. That this time he would survive.

“I didn’t know you could really be this selfish.” Javier got up from his place beside him, “I need a moment.”

He didn't leave room for any further questions so he just watched as his boyfriend made his way away from the group and towards the rails by the cliff, leaning on his elbows and just looking at everything in front of him and nothing at all.

Yuzuru wished there was a way to fix it, to have a normal life for once. But he knew this was the price for choosing each other. For being selfish in the first place. He led his head fall into his hands and wondered if someday they would regret all of this.

Would someday Javier resent him for the choices they had made? There was no answer to that except time.

Their worst enemy.

Because time, didn't play fair.

 

 

* * *

 

 

While everyone was completely enraptured by the story being told about the struggles of two legendary characters, no one seemed to notice the pain of two very real ones right in front of them.

Except for one.

They watched the couple’s exchange in deep sorrow and as one chose to leave the other, they couldn’t help but wonder when did things managed to go so wrong.

They still had rejoiced at the discovery, such a silly mistake from their part. 

_You came back for me._

_Just like you promised._

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

_They had been both just lazing around the clearing, the snow was now completely gone and the sheep had once more been brought out to feed on the green grass that filled the whole ground beneath them._

_The shepherd had missed the warm season._

_Still, he didn’t complain having a warm and complete bundled up Antília laying on his chest, almost half asleep. He wondered how they could bear to be so overdressed in the scorching sun yet, the smallest gust of wind seemed to freeze them to the bone, and after he had found out ounce how sick they had become after a light cold, well...he had made sure that they were all covered. No matter the season. At all times._

_“So…” he started._

_“Yes?” Antília tried to blink away the sleep from their eyes and failing miserably._

_“My mother wants to meet you.”_

_That seemed to do the trick. They immediately sat up and looked down at the shepherd’s smirking face._

_“What?”_

_“Is that a bad thing?”_

_“No! I mean, you told her about me?” Antília asked, looking completely nervous at the whole prospect of meeting his family._

_He wondered if this was a good idea after all._

_“Not exactly, she just noticed how much happier I have been for a while now …she figured that I had someone special,” he pulled Antília back down, making them fall right on top of him, “Which is true.”_

_“Oh…and did you tell her about…who I am?”_

_Telling your mother that you were dating the King’s secret child was not a very smart move._

_He smiled at their panic state and switched their positions, making Antília lay down on the soft grass as he hovered over them._

_“No, I didn’t tell her anything about dating a royal, I just said that  I had fallen in love with the most,” a peck to their forehead, “beautiful,” a touch of his lips to their nose, “kind”,  a soft kiss to their cheekbone,  “intelligent”, another to the other side of their face, he could feel them tremble beneath them when he reached his final destination, “and brave person that I had ever met.” Antília was already reaching up for him and like always he couldn’t deny them._

_When they broke apart, they covered their face, now an unhealthy shade of red, “That’s so embarrassing, oh my Lord.”_

_“She loves you already, and she says she can’t wait to meet you.”_

_“I would like to meet her too.”_

_“For real?” the shepherd asked them, surprised at their response._

_“Yeah,” Antília gestured towards their guard, sitting by the usual tree trying to ignore them both, “I just need to ask Miguel though.”_

_“Right.”_

 

 

* * *

 

 

“Hey! Brian just told he talked to you a few hours ago, is everything okay?” she asked, her mother tone already present and ready to fix any possible issues.

“I’m fine, I just…” he looked behind him and Paulo seemed to completely ignore him as he sneaked out and made a call, he hadn’t been bothered by Javier’s absence either so he just thanked his good luck and tried to keep himself unnoticed, “I just needed to talk to someone.”

“Oh darling, you are not fine, I can tell by your voice.”

“It’s nothing bad I promise.”

“Yuzuru Hanyu, I’ve been by your side literally every day for the last ten years, you can’t just hide from me, tell me what’s wrong.”

“I was just talking to Javi about something and we just…have different opinions.”

“Yuzu, you’re on vacation, what could you possibly have fought about?”

Yuzuru closed his eyes and tried to muffle a sob that threatened to come out with his hands.

“Yuzuru?”

“We were talking about adopting a child. In the future.” He knew his voice must have sounded awful yet he didn’t bring himself to care.

“Oh, Yuzu…he didn’t think you were ready?”

“Something like that.”

“Darling, it’s completely normal you know? People get scared of the possibility of being a parent all the time…The whole idea of having a child for the first time is always something that needs time to settle in…”

Yuzuru couldn’t hold back anymore, he hanged the phone and let himself cry everything out. He had thought he could be strong again and forget.

But Javier had been right.

They weren’t ready.

Not yet.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_“What is all of this?”_

_All around them flowers had been thrown in such a manner that seemed to completely cover the grass, and on the very middle a blanket had been laid on the ground and on top of it they could see dozens of different foods, from ham to pies, from fruits to different types of cheese, He had warned them to not eat at home that day, but surely this was too much?_

_“I just wanted today to be special.” The shepherd told them, as he pulled them along and settled themselves on the blanket._

_Miguel stood awkwardly by his usual favorite tree, his best friend by now, pitying the poor man, the shepherd invited him over, “Eat with us, there’s enough food for everyone.”_

_The guard grumbled about dumb kids and their excessive gestures but still accepted the invitation._

_Antília couldn’t help but moan at everything that they tried, the shepherd seemed eager to make them eat at least a bit of everything, “This is all delicious.”_

_“That’s because you never ate half of these things before, but yes my mother is a marvelous cook, she made sure that everything was perfect today.”_

_“Please tell her I adored every bit.”_

_“I’m hoping you’ll enjoy what comes next even more…”_

_That made Miguel immediately rise from the blanket and up to his feet, “I’m going to…disappear and leave you two to die, I don’t care anymore…goodbye.”_

_“What? Why?”_

_The shepherd could only smile at Antília’s innocence, how he wished they could keep it forever._

_“Miguel, stop being an idiot and just stay.”_

_“If you-”_

_“Nothing like that is happening so just…just shut up.”_

_He got to his feet and pulled Antília with him. He took a deep breath and braced himself for any possible outcome._

_This was it._

_“Antília it’s been barely a year since we met. Yet, if there’s anything on this earth that I’m sure of, is that I love you and that I won’t stop loving you until the day that I die.”_

_He saw how they opened their mouth ready to reassure their own feelings but he silenced them with a quick kiss and whispered into their lips, “Let me finish?”_

_They nodded and the shepherd carried on, “I’ve loved you for a very short time and yet I know that I will love you forever, only you. I believe that we met for a reason and that we were meant to belong to one another. I want to spend the next one hundred years by your side and fall in love with you, even more, each day. I’m a shepherd, I don’t own much…you have seen my home, my family…you know what I am.”_

_Antília’s face was covered in tears and the shepherd tried his best to wipe them away as he finished his emotional speech._

_“Antília I don’t know what the future will bring us, or how we will escape your father’s wrath but would you do me the honor of marrying me, a simple shepherd with nothing but his love and protection to offer you?”_

_They didn’t seem capable of uttering a response so they nodded frantically and pulled the shepherd down to meet their own lips. It was enough of an answer for him._

_From the side, Miguel watched as the two lovers traded promised of eternal love and sent a silent prayer to the ski above them._

_Please let their love last forever._

_May they survive every hardship that fate decides to throw into their path._

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

“Yuzu?”

Yuzuru looked at his side, Javier had come back and sat himself down beside him like before. He looked down and tried to hide his red eyes from his boyfriend, he had managed to make his face look presentable with the help of his sweater but he knew Javie would figure that he had been crying within seconds.

“Hey look at me.”

He cupped his face in his hand and turned it to him. Javier’s deep brown eyes instantly softened and he caressed the skin under his lower lashes as if trying to dry the invisible tears.

“I’m sorry, what I said…you could never be selfish if anything I was the one that-”

This time Yuzuru was the one that covered his mouth with his index finger, “You didn’t mean it, I know, let’s forget about it.” He got himself closer to Javier once again, grabbed his arm and wrapped it around himself.

The Spaniard smiled and rested his head on top of the black mop of hair beneath his chin, "One day we shall face it together."

"Sim, como sempre fizemos até agora."

"E como faremos até ao fim."

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

_“It’s time for us to leave.”_

_“Wait, Miguel do you think that maybe my father could agree to this? Maybe…_

_“That’s a lot of maybes, for now, we should. We’ll think about all of this later.”_

_Antília went back to the shepherd and quickly pressed their lips together, once, twice and when Miguel cleared his throat, the shepherd forced himself to step back, smiling down at Antília as they chased his lips and slightly whined, “Go, I’ll see you tomorrow.”_

_They pouted, but obeyed and walked away, following Miguel. He found it odd that Antília never stopped looking back at him. He ignored the sick feeling from his gut that had shown itself from nowhere._

_Before both figures disappeared into the woods, Antília mouthed something to him._

_He understood, yet he didn’t get to say it back._

_Amo-te_

 

 

 

 

 

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter, at last, I'm so happy about this whole thing :P I hope you can enjoy this last part :)
> 
> For those of you that didn't get the weird sentences, nope, they were not in Spanish...cuz this is Portugal we are talking about hahah so let me translate them for you:
> 
> "Sim, como sempre fizemos até agora." (Yes, like we always did until now.)
> 
> "E como faremos até ao fim." (And like we will always do until the end.)
> 
> "Amo-te." (I love you)
> 
> I loved how Yuzuru and Javi spoke Portuguese out of the blue and it was completely fine with you guys :P
> 
> There's gonna be a few more ahead so I'll leave their translations as well:
> 
> "Sempre" (Always)
> 
> "Prometo" (I promise)
> 
> Also, some names are translated into Portuguese hehe

 

**_The God who gave them eyes had failed to wipe their tears._ **

**_Yet they knew that someone would always catch them._ **

**_Sempre._ **

 

 

Paulo looked up, the clouds seemed to cover at least half of the sky above them. Soon enough the sun would hide and leave them defenseless against the merciless wind. These were the usual signs.

_As always._

It was time to finish the tale, he knew that this time it would be different though. Things would change.

He still couldn’t believe it.

After all these years…

_I’ll wait for you here, prometo._

_And I’ll come back for you, prometo._

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Antília didn’t come back on the next day. Or the one after that. Or even three days after._

_He knew it was irrational, but he couldn’t help but suspect that something was definitely wrong._

_He could feel himself breathe again as Miguel and Antília made their way into the clearing, he had been so completely absorbed in despair that he didn’t even notice their arrival at first._

_The first thing he saw was how Antília’s face was covered in tears as they ran towards him. Behind them Miguel followed, his face tired and devoid of any feeling._

_The shepherd beckoned Antília into his arms and their lavender scent brought him some comfort, at last._

_They were here._

_They were safe._

_He looked back to Miguel and asked what both had been dreading since the beginning._

_“The king..?”_

_“He found out.”_

_The shepherd’s heart started beating so loudly in his chest that he was sure that Antília could hear it from their place on his embrace._

_“He found out…?”_

_“Your meetings, my betrayal…everything.”_

 

 

* * *

 

“It’s getting cold out here.” He told the skater sitting down in front of him. He almost lost all of his seriousness when he looked up to him.

“Excuse me?”

“It’s getting cold, windy or whatever.”

“And…?”

“You could put on your jacket and not get pneumonia.”

_Whatever gets your sweater covered._

“I’m fine.”

“Please wear your jacket or I won’t be able to continue with our tale.” He knew that if there was something that Yuzuru hated more than him, at the moment, was the fact that they were still not done with the damn tale.

_Paulo prayed that for once he actually listened to him._

_Please, just this once._

A bit desperate and out of option, the Portuguese guide turned to Javier and made a gesture in order to get him to understand.

_Please work...please...please…_

“I told you I’m-”

“Yuzu, please,” Javier turned to his boyfriend and fished his own jacket from underneath his bottom, putting it now around his shoulder, trying to shake the grass from it, “I’ll explain later.”

The Spaniard looked up to Paulo and smiled. A silent conversation seemed to happen between the two.

_It’s been a long time._

_Thank you, old friend._

“Can you imagine if you got sick? I will be lynched by everyone and known as “Paul the dude that got Yuzuru Hanyu sick” even though he knew he had bad lungs.”

“I never told you about my lungs.”

Paulo seemed to freeze for a few seconds and Javier answered for him, “There’s a whole page on Wikipedia dedicated to your asthma.”

“Oh.” That somehow seemed to make sense to him. “Okay, go on and finish the goddamn story.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

_“How?”_

_“That suitor’s spies, apparently he wanted to find out why Antília was so against their marriage. He suspected that they had someone else, so he had someone follow us…he reported everything back to the king.”_

_“What…what happens now?” The shepherd could barely believe this was really happening. It was like every nightmare had suddenly come true._

_“He was…merciful,” he scoffed as he uttered the words, “and gave you a chance to say goodbye to each other.”_

_As soon as the words sunk in he immediately grabbed Antília and held them even tighter against his chest, “No, no! I won’t just give up like that!”_

_“You have no other choice.”_

_“Please,” he begged, “please just…we can run away, Antília would you come with me? I promised you I will protect you, I ca-”_

_“He knows where we are, he won’t let you leave the island.” Miguel told him, he had tried to come up for a possible way out of this himself. He had found none. “He will always hunt the both of you, you will never have peace for as long as you shall live.”_

_Miguel took a few steps away from the couple and gestured towards the woods, “I will leave you for a few hours on your own, I beg of you to not try anything or they will find you and kill the both of you.”_

_The lovers gave him a last smile of gratitude before he left them._

_“Antília we can try please…please…”_

_They took their hands away from their face and kissed both of his palms, “We made a promise to each other, remember?”_

_He did remember, they had vowed to always protect each other. No matter what._

_And just like he would die for Antília, he knew that they would do the same._

_“They might spare me…but they will kill you.” They tried to smile, for them, for everything that they had gained and now lost. “We knew that this day would come.”_

_“I can’t…I can’t just let you go like that…”_

_“Xavier listen to me! I won’t let them hurt you!”_

_Tears started cascading down both of their faces. Xavier tried to wipe them away from Antília’s eyes when he noticed how they suddenly turned into fine rivulets of blue._

_Antília gasped and touched the shepherd’s own face and traced the salted water that ran down his cheeks. Their hands were green._

_Tears of despair._

_Tears of pain._

_Tears for a love that could never be._

_Perhaps this was how immortals cried when in mortal pain._

_They held onto each other until they could no longer stand and collapsed together to the ground, their hands tightly woven together._

_Their tears had managed to disappear into the volcano’s crater below them, two beautiful twin lakes now stood where only emptiness had lived for thousands of years._

_Their time was up._

_Miguel was the only one left to finish what had started because of his own fault._

_Because of his weakness for Antília, he had let them wander outside the palace grounds and into the wilderness. All of this had been his fault._

_How could he ever live knowing what he had done?_

 

 

* * *

 

“And although the two lovers could not be together on earth their tears remained together so the world would not forget them. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Legend of the Princess and the Shepard of the Kingdom of Seven Cities, and how the Seven Cities Lagoon came to be.”

A round of applause burst from all around the group, as Paulo, finished the tragic story about the two ill-fated lovers. He noticed how Lara was trying to clean her own face to her sleeves as her mother tried her best to help her with paper tissues. He felt sorry for the little girl.

But he had people to protect.

Just like he had been doing for a long time.

“Any questions before we climb down to the picnic area?” he asked them.

The crowd fell silent, almost everyone seemed to shake their heads and some were still shedding a tear or two, but right at the far end of the group, a small hand rose and waved in his direction.

People were getting up and rounding up their belongings, he could easily ignore the Japanese man.

Yet he chose not to.

_Took you long enough._

“Yes?” he asked him, trying to keep his tone professional as it had been since the beginning of the trip.

_An unforgettable one, that’s for sure._

“What happened to them? After the whole crying and filling a volcano crater part?” he seemed nonchalant about the whole story, yet Paulo noticed how he had asked the question in an uncharacteristic meek voice. Perhaps he was testing him.

He wouldn’t fail.

“Well, I suppose they lived apart and moved on with their lives. Antília probably married a prince like she was supposed to, and the shepherd a beautiful maiden from his village.”

“But that’s so sad.” The skater argued.

“Not everyone gets a happy ending in life.” That much was true. Sometimes it didn’t matter how much you prayed and fought, sometimes life had a bigger plan for you. You might not like it, you might not understand it. But Paulo guessed that even Gods were doomed to wander the earth on their own.

“If no one has any further questions, let’s go down the trail and finally have our lunch!”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Yuzuru watched as Paulo made his way through the trail quicker than all of them, he tried to help the older tourists first and then give a hand to those carrying children, like Lara’s mother. He waited until he could finally spot him alone.

_It’s time._

“You know, even though you called it the Legend of the Princess and the Shepherd, you never actually talked about a princess in your story.”

Paulo nearly jumped out of his skin when Yuzuru suddenly appeared right behind him. He quickly composed himself and answered him, “One thing is what people call it and another what it really is.”

“And what do you mean by that?”

_They were going to play this game?_

_Okay then._

“Stories are never quite like the original version, it gets told from one person to another through hundreds of years. We can’t expect stories to remain the same and I chose to tell my own version of the story.”

“Why did you change it?” the smirk on his face made Paulo want to strangle him even after everything, but he refrained himself from doing so and kept walking.

_Was this another test?_

“Because I have a theory about who they really were and how it all really ended.”

“You do?” Yuzuru didn’t sound the least surprised.

Paulo nodded and finally looked at the skater, “I do, do you want to hear it?”

Yuzuru’s eyes were becoming wet by the second, yet he still held on. Paulo desperately wanted to let go of all the pretenses.

_I missed you._

_I missed you too._

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

_The guard rushed through the clearing, in his hands bags of food and clothes. Both Antília and Xavier were still on their knees, their heart-wrenching sobs filling the clearing._

_Miguel put a steady hand on each of their shoulders, begging for their attention. Xavier’s eyes red tear-filled eyes found the bags on Miguel’s arms and confusion temporarily took over his grief-stricken expression._

_“You don’t have much time. So please, take these and run.”_

_“How?”_

_“I told them that you were going to jump into the crater together, they seemed to believe it. They are rushing here to stop you.”_

_Antília took some of the clothes their guard gave to them but their face still betrayed a thousand questions._

_“Listen, you need to get away from this place and never come back, I made sure that there’s a boat waiting for you by the shore, they will take you to the mainland safely, he has done it before.”_

_“How…?”_

_“He was the one that helped the Queen escape once.”_

_More than once actually._

_Yet that would a story for another time._

_“Miguel, I won’t leave you here-” they pleaded._

_“We’ll see each other again. I can’t leave or it would be too suspicious, I will stay and make sure no one ever finds out the truth.”_

_He grabbed Antília’s face between his two warm hands and cradled it like he always did whenever he needed to comfort his charge or wipe their tears after scrapping their knees, or when they had found out that they had fallen in love with a shepherd and perhaps it wasn’t mutual._

_Those days would never come back._

_He would never comfort them again._

_He would trust Xavier to be there for them from now on._

_“I’ll wait for you here, prometo.”_

_“And I’ll come back for you, prometo.”_

_He gave a quick hug to the shepherd and a wish for good luck when he remembered, “There’s one last thing you’ll need,” he fished two necklaces from his pockets, one of them a simple arrangement of beads and an almost triangular shaped pendant, the other a simple chain of gold, “these are talismans, you need to remember that humans outside this island don’t actually age like us.”_

_“What do you mean?” Xavier asked._

_“From what I read in my books humans usually live for about sixty years before they perish…”_

_“You know how your mother like to sometimes travel to the human world? These were made especially for her. One of your father’s sorcerers enchanted it so it would change her appearance, in order to avoid trouble in the human world. She couldn’t risk exposing our existence.”_

_Antília and Xavier grabbed the jewelry and wore them at once, they would never be able to take it off throughout the rest of their lives, but that was a small price to pay for freedom._

_After all was said and done, Miguel could only watch as the shepherd and Antília fled the clearing and disappeared through the trees._

_He didn’t know if they would meet again for sure._

_But he would be there._

_He would wait._

_And he would make sure they would be safe._

 

* * *

 

 

 

“And then they left the island. I like to believe they lived happily ever after, forever.”

“Do you think they’re still out there?” Yuzuru had finally let out a sob, but Paulo had managed to understand him nonetheless.

“I know they are.”

“What happened to Miguel?” Paulo looked down and tried to fight his own tears.

“He stayed on the island as he promised. Some say that the king is still out there so Miguel stayed to make sure no one knew the truth…he’s still here, waiting for them.”

He gave up on his self-control.

He had waited for far too long.

“It has been a long time hasn’t it?” he asked, “It took you a long time.”

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…”

Yuzuru threw himself at him and Paulo pushed them both out of the trail, making sure they wouldn’t be found easily.

“I lost hope after a few centuries but I just couldn’t stop thinking that…” he whispered into the shorter man’s shoulder, “you would come back, you wouldn’t forget.”

“I came here one year ago…I begged Xavier to come with me and try, just try…We didn’t know what to do or where to search, everything was so..” he looked around them, “so different.”

“It doesn’t matter, you found me.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

“Do people really think that this princess and the shepherd, managed to cry enough to fill a damn lagoon?” Yuzuru asked his boyfriend, shivering slightly at the cold wind that seemed to wrap around them both by the safety rails that overlooked the massive lake.

“It’s what the legend says, there’s no use trying to find some logic on it.”

“Wouldn’t hurt to get some accuracy,” Javier laughed and wrapped his arms around his smaller partner, hoping that he could help keep him warm somehow, “The disrespect. But I guess there’s some truth to it…but a whole lagoon? Seriously?”

Javier couldn’t but laugh again at Yuzuru’s offended look and turned him around in order to face him, he noticed how his black bangs almost covered his eyes completely. “You need a haircut.”

Yuzuru looked up to his boyfriend and raised an inquisitive eyebrow at the sudden comment. Javier almost never cared about how he looked like.

Sometimes he could swear he would look like a homeless person and he wouldn’t even blink twice. It was sweet, but he had almost killed his boyfriend when he had worn his Winnie The Pooh pajama top to their training session back in Toronto, and when he asked Javier about it he had just shrugged and said he looked cute.

Brian had wondered what was wrong between them for days.

“What? It’s true I can barely see your eyes.”

“Why bother? I’ll just change it all again then,” the skater joked, but perhaps it was time. He had been Yuzuru Hanyu for so long that he had almost grown…attached to him.

“But I’m actually getting used to this look of yours…” Javier threw his best puppy eyes at him, clearly not taking him seriously.

“I see…you really like this Yuzuru Hanyu, don’t you?” he asked him, playing with his gold chain that always hang around his boyfriend’s neck.

“Can’t say that I don’t.”

Javier smiled and buried his face into his boyfriend’s hair, letting the scent of lavender fill his senses and relax him, like always.

It felt like home.

“I loved every single look, just like you said you loved mine…”

“I do love those curls,” he gently carded his fingers through the taller one’s messy locks and whined at the soft feeling, “why is your hair always so soft and nice? I’m always stuck with black and flat, no matter what I do…”

Javier turned him around in his arms and pulled him closer to his chest, “I love it, it’s perfect. You’re perfect.”

“Oh God, so cheesy.”

Yuzuru mockingly pushed him away, but not before Javier managed to sneak a quick peck to his smiling lips. He buried his head on the sturdy chest in front of him, enjoying the warmth that Javier’s body seemed to irradiate all over his body.

“If you pull another Ulrich-like hairstyle though,” he threatened, showing him his best murderous look, “you’ll get the couch for the next century.”

Javier smiled. He had hated his old hairstyle with a passion, but it had been the newest trend back in Sweden. And it wasn’t like his boyfriend’s mustache back in Norway had been fun.

He could still feel the burn on his own face from all that hair.

Was his newest mustache some form of payback? Maybe.

Yuzuru wasn’t the only one known to hold grudges. Besides, it was fun to annoy the younger one.

“We should bring Brian, Tracy and the kids next time,” he said, breaking the comfortable silence, “Jun would attract every single wild animal.”

Javier felt him nod against his chest, “And maybe we could give them a heart attack?”

“No, I want to enjoy the few years we still have together with them, thank you very much.”

That seemed to somehow put a stop to their light conversation. When Yuzuru looked up to him again, Javier knew that all playfulness was fully gone, the shift in his irises left no doubts.

The constant fear, the notion that time would never move the same for them and for the rest of the world, seemed to hang over their heads at every corner.

Yet, they couldn’t fight it. They had tried and lost.

So now, all they could do was to not lose each other.

“Where will we go?”

“I don’t want to think about that just yet,” he hugged the man in his arms closer to his chest and dropped his chin on his shoulder, “as long as we have each other by our side, does that even matter, Antília?”

He didn’t get an answer, but the pale blue lines that marred his porcelain skin as tears fell, one after another told Javier everything he needed to know.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

“Lara!”

The small girl stopped on her tracks and her mother said goodbye to the Portuguese guide and thanked him for the amazing day.

“Yeah?”

She didn’t seem amused when she spotted Yuzuru calling for her daughter, so she pulled her to him and narrowed her eyes at him.

“Listen-”

“Just one minute,” he pleaded with her, he really needed to make this right, “please.”

When she still didn’t seem convinced he pulled his last card, “Do you perhaps…enjoy figure skating?”

“I do.” She answered him but still not relenting her hold on Lara.

“My name is Yuzuru Hanyu, a skater…perhaps you heard of me? I could get you some tickets for the World Championships this season, for your whole family,” he almost stopped there but decided to throw it all in, “along with flight tickets and hotel reservations.”

“I know who you are.”

_Thank God-_

“I’m sorry but I’m not a fan…”

_What the…_

Yuzuru followed her gaze and saw how it landed on his boyfriend.

_Bingo._

“Javier Fernández? Good choice, very charming very Spanish."

The older lady blushed and he thanked his boyfriend for captivating women from all over the world with his Spanish charm.

_I guess he’s useful after all._

_Time to sell him for a few minutes with Lara._

“Tell you what, if you let me talk to your daughter, you can go and say hi to my boyfriend and maybe get a hug? A fair trade?”

He was about to offer her a possible kiss on the Spaniard’s cheek when Lara herself pushed her mother away and whined for her to go, “Mama, go.”

“Fine, but I’ll be right there if you try something.”

She walked over to his unsuspecting boyfriend who looked at him and raised an eyebrow, Yuzuru signaled for him to go along with whatever she wanted.

Within reason.

Once they were alone he started, “Lara, I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to push you away like that,” he grabbed her tiny hand within his own and pressed a kiss on each of them, “Javi and I were just thinking about some sad thing from the past.”

She didn’t pull away from him so he considered it a good sign and continued, “We once had a baby girl just like you, you know? A long long time ago, she was so beautiful and smart, we loved her very very much.”

“Where is she?”

Yuzuru swallowed and forced himself to answer the child’s innocent curiosity, “She’s…not with us anymore. We lost her and until this day we still miss her terribly.” He tried to control himself and keep his voice somewhat stable, “You reminded us of her.”

“I’m sorry…” Lara looked down and he could see how she was holding back her own tears.

“Don’t be sorry, I should be the apologizing, I was mean to you-”

Yuzuru didn’t get to finish as the little girl wrapped her arms around him, in the end, it had been him who had found comfort in the small girl.

Perhaps, that was what he had missed all along.

“Why can’t you have another baby?”

“It’s not that simple, I can’t have a baby and neither can Javi, we could adopt one but…we don’t want to lose them again.” He explained, but tried to somewhat change the topic, “Listen, that story about the princess and the shepherd? It doesn’t really end like that, Paulo didn’t tell you the real ending.”

“He didn’t?” she almost screamed, her eyes big and full of curiosity.

“No, sometimes it’s better to just let people believe a lie in order to protect others. But I think I can trust you with the truth, would you like to know the real ending?”

“Yes!”

“Alright wait a second,” Yuzuru smiled and pulled a paper from his wallet, placing it in her small hands, “Here, now we will keep in touch. There’s a lot of things that Paulo left out, adventures that I never told him myself, some sad and some happier but still worth telling.”

“You told him…yourself?” she asked him, obviously confused.

“Oops, I guess my secret is out,” Yuzuru smiled and brought a finger to his lips, “but you can keep a secret right?”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

“When did it happen?”

“One hundred and fifty-seven years ago.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It was a long time ago.” He looked down and tried not to bring all those memories back up again. But Miguel deserved to know the truth.

“Yet the pain never quite fades.”

Yuzuru looked to his side, perhaps his friend hadn’t gotten a perfect life himself.

“Did you lost someone too?”

“I made a mistake once, I fell in love.” He told him.

“Oh.”

“I fell in love with a mortal woman, I should have known better,” Miguel shook his head as he recalled what were probably the best moments of his life, “we had a wonderful life together and three beautiful children.”

“They…?” he didn’t mean to ask such a painful question, yet he wanted to know everything. The good and the bad. Everything that he had missed until then.

“They are still alive and well back in the mainland.”

“How?”

Surely it couldn’t be possible? Or had he married someone from their time?

“Apparently an offspring of one of us with a mortal will result in an immortal child.” Paulo told him, “Which in your case would be an option.”

“What do you mean?” He shuddered at the thought of having a child with a woman or his boyfriend touching another.

“I’m pretty sure you know how modern medicine works, you could even have two, one from you and one from him.”

“I never pondered about that...they would be immortal, and to curse someone like that just because we are afraid to lose them, wouldn’t it be selfish?”

Paulo might have given them hope, but at what cost?

“Perhaps, but that’s something but will have to decide in time,” the older one smiled down at him, “and you two have a lot of it.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

They had both decided to go back to their hotel and meet with Paulo the next day, it had been an emotional day, they needed to rest and fully understand what had just happened. They were both just lazing around on their hotel bed, fully clothed as they had arrived from their hiking trip, when Yuzuru suddenly remembered something. It had been bothering him to no end for the last few years since he started visiting the island.

“Listen why am I always a girl? I mean, I’m thankful that they think that I was really pretty and shit but c’ mon.”

“Stereotypes, have you heard of them?” Javier hadn’t even opened his eyes and Yuzuru dropped back into his pillow.

“Ugh.”

“Those were different times, we didn’t fell in love with appearances, we fell in love with what we found here,” Javier turned to him and caressed Yuzuru’s temple and then the left side of his chest, “and here.”

“Humans…”

“They are changing, evolving. One day they will realize what love is really about.”

Yuzuru looked to his side and wondered how this man, his lover of hundreds of years had never let himself lose hope.

In humanity, in him.

He had always been the optimistic one, he had always been the one to push them both forward when things got rough.

The skater tightened his hold on Javier’s hand, gifting him a smile that spoke enough about his feelings.

Thank you for never letting yourself become disillusioned after everything we’ve been through.

Thank you for saving me time and time again.

Thank you for not letting me drown.

Thank you for choosing me.

“It has been like one five hundred years, get used to it.”

Yuzuru scoffed at the mere idea, “Five hundred and thirty-three, and I am not getting over it anytime soon, just like I won't get over Miguel telling our story like that to strangers, I'm going to sue him i swear to God. How did he even managed to get them to name the island after him?” he suddenly draped himself on top of Javier's body, who found breathing a bit difficult out of a sudden and jabbed his finger on his chest,  “Wait what does that mean anyway? Will you get over me in time, too, Xavier?”

“If I stood by you for five hundred and thirty-two years, I’m pretty sure I’m not getting over you anytime soon,” he pressed his forehead to Yuzuru’s and whispered the words as if sealing a secret promise, “you are stuck with me forever.”

“Sempre.”

“Sempre.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Hey, I got a question."

"What?"

"Paulo always kept the same face as Miguel so I recognized him once I saw him, but how did he know it was me?"

Javier opened one eye and laughed at his boyfriend.

He didn't find it as funny, "I'm serious."

"Take off the jacket and watch yourself in the mirror."

Yuzuru jumped from the bed and threw the jacket that Javier had shoved on him into the floor. Once he reached the full body mirror he almost screamed.

The white sweater's sleeves were tinged with blue spots. Everywhere.

The same sleeves he had wiped his eyes on, earlier.

He had been walking around like a smurf all this time.

"That motherfu-"

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked this, please tell me your thoughts by leaving me a comment :)
> 
> And you can always find the legend right here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagoa_das_Sete_Cidades  
> And the lost island of seven cities (also known as Antilia) here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antillia


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